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I just recently finished spec'in out my new system. I am fairly knowledgeable in basic computer construction, but overclocking is something I would like to get into in 6 to 8 months once I can afford to buy a water cool setup and my system performance starts to suffer. My proposed spec is:

Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad (QX6850)
Asus Striker Extreme Mobo
Antec P190 Case (I only listed because of the space issues had with the 8800 series video cards)
EVGA 768mb Geforce 8800 GTX KO w/ ACS3 (Figured I would pick a second one up after Nvidia drops the new line this November or December.
Two WesterDigital Raptor HD 150Mb/each
Creative Labs Soundblaster X-FI
and lastly
Corsair Dominator 2Gb pc2-8500

I was wondering if this ram would be the best choice to overclock. I am only going to purchase 2gigs now because I will primarily be using the 32bit XP OS until Vista gets its act together and 32 bit OS can only really use 3gigs anyway. Any advice or suggestions would be welcome. From what little I have currently read about OC I wanted to have my ram running at 1066mhz instead of 800mhz and I assume to have the FSB to scale accordingly. Is this an achievable goal with this ram or have I been misinformed? Thanks in advance.

Champion

That corsair is good ,but u may want to look @ OCZ 4GB or 2GB ram REAPER ram , it has both ddr2 800 and 1066 , generaly DDR 800 and 1066 dont have a lot of difference , but if u want to OC alot , get DDR2 1066

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Wow... there's a SERIOUS waste of money in that build. First the Asus Crapper Extreme... that's a $300 board (the 2nd most overpriced board from ASUS that I can find, the most overpriced one is the AMD Quad FX board), second two raptors... I wouldn't even consider one, let alone two.

Also P190? That's a $400 case with, in my opinion, not a very good PSU system (Neolink?? No thanks, sounds like problems using dual PSUs). And why would you want a QX6850, honestly if you're into OC'ing then you must be aware that you are defeating the whole purpose of OC'ing by getting a $1200 CPU, especially when you can reach similar performance with a Q6600 liquid cooled.

I would recommend you getting an Antec Nine Hundred case, an eVGA 680i mobo, an Antec TruePower Quattro 850W/1000W or a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W, a Q6600 (MAYBE Q6700 if you want to waste money), 2 500GB drives and run them on RAID 0, and get some Crucial Ballistix Tracers DDR2 1066. Saving A LOT of money and losing essentially no performance at all (ESPECIALLY if you're planning on OC'ing)

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I have already past the X6800 Extreme with the E6600 @3.6GHz and only paid $227.00 for it. If you want a Quad core get the Q6600 and OC it to 3.0-3.6Ghz. You want some great ram get the Crucial Ballistix 800 or 1066 like emp said.

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Money really isn't an issue here to a certain extent. I have around $3600 to lay out for just the system. My last build I did six and a half years ago and I only had to upgrade my video card once and I can still pay oblivion and fear almost maxed out. I am looking for that same amount of longevity. I assumed that getting all the top of the line stuff now would ensure that. I wasn't aware that the QX6850 couldn't be over clocked anymore so than it already has. As I said before I was looking to get into OC down the road I know relatively little about it and water cooling in general. I just wanted to get my ram to take full advantage of the MHz cap listed on the motherboard specs.

Thank you for the board and memory suggestions Emp. eVGA 680i T1 is defiantly the way to go and the ram is nothing, but impressive. Though I am afraid nothing will separate me from the raptors. I have had two 36 gig ones for god knows how long and I just love them. I am not sure why I care so much about seek time, but I do.

Are there any other case suggestions anyone could provide me with. I picked the p190 because it has some interesting sound dampening features and it had enough room to fit two 8800 cards and an internal water-cooling system. I am an aesthetic minimalist and that is part of the reason I was drawn to the p190.

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Money really isn't an issue here to a certain extent. I have around $3600 to lay out for just the system. My last build I did six and a half years ago and I only had to upgrade my video card once and I can still pay oblivion and fear almost maxed out. I am looking for that same amount of longevity. I assumed that getting all the top of the line stuff now would ensure that. I wasn't aware that the QX6850 couldn't be over clocked anymore so than it already has. As I said before I was looking to get into OC down the road I know relatively little about it and water cooling in general. I just wanted to get my ram to take full advantage of the MHz cap listed on the motherboard specs.

Thank you for the board and memory suggestions Emp. eVGA 680i T1 is defiantly the way to go and the ram is nothing, but impressive. Though I am afraid nothing will separate me from the raptors. I have had two 36 gig ones for god knows how long and I just love them. I am not sure why I care so much about seek time, but I do.

Are there any other case suggestions anyone could provide me with. I picked the p190 because it has some interesting sound dampening features and it had enough room to fit two 8800 cards and an internal water-cooling system. I am an aesthetic minimalist and that is part of the reason I was drawn to the p190.

If money is not that much an issue then if you can wait for Penryn this fall/winter, its counter part is do next month, Intels X38 mobo.